Shmully Wolfson

Learn. Love. Code.

27 May 2016
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Why code?!

Why did Derek Jeter learn how to play baseball? I know, I’m no Jeter, nor do I play Baseball or even write code like an Allstar (yet!), heck, most of the time when I code I feel like a bush league player facing Mariano Rivera’s Cutter, so why then did I decide to learn software development?!

Fans vs. Players

In 1955 Brooklyn, almost Thirteen year old Shimshon Stock was about to have his Bar Mitzvah, when his father took him to see rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson to get a blessing.

After greeting the boy warmly, the Rabbi blessed him to have a successful and happy life,
as they turned to leave, the rabbi turned to the young boy and asked:
“Are you a baseball fan?” surprised by the question coming from an ‘old world’ rabbi, Shimshon replied that he was.

“Are you a fan of the Yankees or the Dodgers?”

The Dodgers, was his reply.

“Does your father ever take you to games?”

Every once in a while, in fact, we went to a game just last week.

“How was the game?”

Awful, by the sixth inning, the Dodgers where loosing nine-to-two, so we just got up and left.

“How about the players, did they leave too?” — asked the rabbi

Rabbi, the players can’t leave in the middle of the game!

“Why not? How come the players can’t leave the game?”

Well, there are fans and there are players — he explained, the fans can stay or leave as they please,
the players on the other hand have to stay in the game and try to win it, even if the odds aren’t so good.

“That is the lesson I want to teach you in Judaism,” said the Rebbe with a smile. “You can be either a fan or a player. Be a player.”

For The Love Of The Game

I have always had a fascination with technology but it was just curiosity, I didn’t think Web Development and programing was even possible for me, so I ‘left the game in the sixth inning’, I was just a fan admiring from the outside.

That all changed when my roommate, who was learning ruby at the time, told me that programming may be hard work, but it’s not impossible, he assured me that its nothing like it is in the Matrix and if I’m so curious about code and want to be a ‘player I should check out The Flatiron School.

“There may be people who have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do - and I believe that.” — Derek Jeter

Never Giving Up!

At some point of a baseball players childhood they came to the realization that baseball is their passion and just being a fan isn’t enough, watching from the side just wouldn’t do, and made up their mind that they are players, and they worked hard and it didn’t matter how tough it got they just kept going.

In other words, the difference between a player and a fan is passion. Of course fans have passion for the game too, but the passion is from the outside in, as a spectator not as a participant, when the Sh*t hits the fan (pun intended) the fan leaves, or gives up, the player is the one who refuses to give up.

Some players take more time, some take less, some struggle more then others, but players never give up, be a player, and never give up!! as the The Flatiron School and Learn’s motto goes, Learn. Love. Code!.